
Qass. 
Book. 



:b4 3 



^Itmixam J^mtultt 



fttU 



AN ADDRESS 



■/£i'/'W 






^ a 



^bmhnui Jxitrulu 



An address before the lUmois Society of Oakland, California by 
JOHN T. BELL 

^lon- a c.untrv road in Kentucky, a woman and a 
little s^irT riding Imrsehaok, tl,e liorses also carrying 
:,„„: articles of household effects trudging '--;;-- 
afoot, a man and a little boy. The husband an<l fa he of 
is household never learned to read -.-•<--;;:: 
the lad reached the age of twenty-one h,s own o luc t n 
.vas Innited to the ability to wr.te. read »-"' ";| ' 
sums in arithmetic. Thus this famdy-unkn.nvn. , lltat 
poor among the po<n-jo,u-neyed toward a -- ' ' ^^ "^ 
Indiana, the bulk of their small worldly possessu.ns havm„ 
previously gone forward by Hat h<iat. 

There was nothing of note about tl"^^^■•;"^■ *'"";",; 
i, was common enough in that locabty n, 1S16. but th 

ttle boy, dressed in a Jeans su,t that Ins ,no. e h d 
„,,.,ae a h.ckorv shirt, and baret,.oted, ca.ne to be the best 

own and bes't loved man in all the world, to wnte Mat 
papers which now c.mnnand the adnnrat.ou ol the m t 
elolarlv and cultured; to make, -y the oe-cas,on o tic 
dedication of the Getty.sburg Natnun.l Ceme ery. an 

: 1 ;; s of t nunu.es' lengtl, which has been character 

iVed as settmg the h,gh-water mark of Amer.can orao.ry. 
:, serve th,s great Xatiou as its Chief Executne and c.- 
;;salelv through four years of the bloocbest war the 



world has ever known; to strike the chains from four 
million 1:)on{lsmen : to die a martyr to human liberty; to 
be honored by a funeral procession sixteen hundred miles 
long and to be mourned by millions with the sincere grief 
which marks a personal bereavement. 

Two surprising things occurred in the month of June, 
1860 — the holding of a national political convention at 
Chicago, then a town of only 109,200 population on the 
western border of the well-settled Stales, and the nomina- 
tion by that convention of Abraham Lincoln, a country 
lawyer of Illinois, whose only title to fame, outside a very 
limited circle, rested upon a series of eight joint debates 
held with Stephen A. Douglas two years previously. 

This nomination was received with dismay by the 
people of the North and with derision and sneers by those 
of the South. Thoughtful men who loved their country 
realized that so grave was the crisis then impending that 
the highest order of intellect, the clearest vision and the 
most profound judgment combined with courage and forti- 
tude of the most exalted character, would be required by 
the Nation of the one who was to become its Executive 
on the Fourth of March following. 

What an appalling task it was which confronted this 
modest, unassuming, sad-eyed man from the prairies of 
the West when he reached Washington February 23, 1861! 
So thoroughly permeated with disloyalty was ot^cial life 
at the Nation's capital at that date that he could not place 
his hand upon a single individual, high or low in station, 
and say: "Upon you 1 can rely." Inexperienced in state- 
craft; with but slight acquaintance with the leaders of his 

own party; surrounded by those who received him coldly 
or with open expressions of contempt; seven States 
already seceded, with the certainty that others would 



follow the entire military force of the country cons,stni:4 
of only 20,CC0 men; the few ships comprism^^ the navy 
scattered abroad; an empty national treasnry-surely. 
surely never before was bnrden so heavy placed npon the 
shoulders of man as that which Abraham Uncoln took up 
when he stood <n the eastern portico ot the Capitol and 
o mnly dedicated himself to the service of his distracted 



country 



Nine davs after Mr. Lincoln's arrual a. Waslung n 
tl,e Nation was electrified by an inaugural address the 
I mud of which had never been penned. Courtly gentlemen 
: 1 p.d,shed scholars had preceded this home,y ntan ,n 
his high office, tr.t never before had the people of th s 
con.ntent been so touched and thrdled on l.ke occas o 
a" they were by President Lincoln's lirst ntaugural. and , 
"il ever stand a model of logic, of clean-cnt statement, of 
patriotic fervor, of sympathetic regard lor m.sled people, 
of co-ent reasoning, of winning perstias.veness. 

Then followed, for this simple-minded man, four years 
of unprecedented experience; of mental ;'"; l''j-; 
strain of gleams of sunshine; ot days of gl""'"' "' J'^ 
tr s wotttof cisaster and defeat; of "--;'.'-:/; J^' 
„f vicious assault; of confidence expressed, of old ess 
L, distrust; of official jealousies; of ';-'-; -'-j;',-';"- 
<,f bloody sacrifices; of treasure wasted, o. '"";;' 
planned and lost; of fraud and corruption, ot exa.ted 
e "usi • of cowardice and treachery; of ag.mized app a s 
1 fathers and mothers and little children - - = ^ 

loved ones perishing in prisons; ot death m his ,,, ho 
hold-the mere reading of the record o. t'"'- " f ^ 
ful dreadful years tills one with amazement that tni. 
l:!,d'rTelned'man should have lived through an e.<peii. 



<ence so crushing. 



We know that there were times when his soul cried 
out for relief. A friend of former years attended one of 
the Presidential recej^tions and afterward related that Mr. 
Lincoln paid little heed to the great throng, including 
perst»ns of the highest distinction, pressing forward to 
take him I53' the hand. After the reception rooms of the 
White House were cleared the President took his friend's 
arm and the two walked up and down in silence. A 
remark was made upon A-Ir. Lincoln's evident depression, 
whereupon he grasped his friend fiercely by the arm and 
exclaimed: "What day is thi.,? What day is this? This 
is Friday; this is the day they shoot farmers' boys dov\n 
O; the I'otomac for goii'^g to sleep on sentry post! My 
Go/ . I can't endure it! 1 can't endure it!" 

With his keen sensibilities, his loving heart which took 
in all mankind, his feeling of close kindred with the com- 
mon people, what a shock it must have been to him to be 
asked to approve the findings of courts martial imposing 
the death penalt}' upon Union soldiers. At such times t- 
took advantage of every possible pretext for withholdnig 
his endorsement. On one occasion, in granting a pardon 
to a deserter, he said: "It makes me feel rested after a 
hard day's work if I can tind some good excuse for saving 
a man's life, and 1 go to l:)ed happy as 1 think how joyous 
the signing of my name makes him and his family and his 
friends." L'pon being asked to sign the death warrant of 
twenty-four deserters, he replied: "There are already too 
many weeping widows in the United States. For God's 
sake do not ask nre to add to the numl^er, for I won't do 
it." On another occasion of this character he said: "i 
think the bo}' can do us more good above the ground than 
under it." An application for the i)ardon of a deserter 
was presented tt) him in a case where the soldier had 



])re\i()usl3' (Hsi)layc(l distiiit^uished courage on tlu- hattlt,-- 
tield. "Did you say he was once badly wounded?" he 
asked. "Then, as tlie Scriptures say that in the shedding 
ol blood there is remission of sins. 1 guess we will ha\e to 
let him off this time." 

In his relations with (tthers he was always considerate 
and forbearing". This was shown in a marked degree in 
his intercourse with Gen. AlcClellan during an entire year 
of disaster, and a]>paliing sacrifices, bringing the country 
to the verge of ruin. After the bloody battle of Fred- 
ericksburg was fought by Gen. Burnside (who succeeded 
McClellan) the leading officers of the army of the Potomac 
were in a demoralized conditn n. By appointment, .i 
midnight. December 31. 1862, Gen. Burnside met dr. 
Lincoln at the White Hou.se and a long and anxious 
conference followed. 'J^hen the President wrote to his 
militar}' adviser. Gen. H. \V. llalleck. requesting him to 
\-isit **he army of the Potomac in its camps, investigate the 
s' lation. confer with the officers and then to direct Gen. 
Bu"rnside to mo\'e forward, lU' direct him to remain where 
lu- was. "If you fail me in this," wrote the President, 
"you fail me preciseh' where I feel that 1 ha\e a right to 
rely upon your military judgment." On the back of this 
paper, now on hie in the War Department, is this endorse- 
ment in ]\lr. Lincoln's handwriting, under the same date 
as the paper itself, January 1, 1863: "Withdrawn, because 
Gen. Halleck thinks it is too harsh." 

Peneral Halleck did not render the service then asked of 
him, but remained in Washington. Gen. Hooker succeeded 
Gen. Burnside. fighting the battle of Chancellorsville, 
which was almost as disastrous to the Unii-n as was that 
of Fredericksburg, and was succeeded by Gen. Meade, who 
commanded at the battle of Gettysburg. 



In the midsf of the disappointments and perplexities 
of the first two years of the war, what a comfort it must 
have been to Mr. Lincoln to look across the country to his 
own loved West to the operations of the army commanded 
by an officer to whom President Johnson was wont to 
refer, in later years, as "that little man Grant"; who had 
always obeyed orders, had never complained though often 
treated with the grossest injustice by his immediate 
superior, General Halleck, who never asked ror re-inforce- 
ments and who never lost a battle. Grant was one after 
Lincoln's own heart, and when the modest, unassuming 
man from Galena, Illinois, stood before the modest, 
unassuming man from Springfield, Illinois, on March 9, 
1864, in the White House, to receive his commission as 
Lieutenant-General and commander of all the armies of 
the United States, what a blessed feeling of relief it must 
have brought to the overburdened heart of the President 
to know that at last he had found a man who would lift 
from his own shoulders a great part of their burden. 

Ours is a Christian Nation and Abraham Lincoln was a 
Christian President of that Nation. Beginning by asking 
the prayers of hs fellow citizens at Springfield when he 
bade them good-bye on starting to Washington, he 
expressed, on every suitable occasion, his reliance upon 
God. In all of his State papers, in his correspondence, in 
military orders, in congratulatory addresses, fitting refer- 
ence was ever made to the power of the Almighty and 
confidence expressed in His goodness, justice and mercy 
in dealing with this people. On the eve of the battle of 
Antietam, in September, 1862, he promised his Maker that 
if victory should come to the Union arms he would issue 
a proclamation abolishing human slavery in the rebellious 
States, and this promise was followed by the immortal 



Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect January 1, 
1863. Speaking of the battle of Gettysburg, he said to 
General Sickles: "In the stress and pinch of the cam- 
paign there T went to my room and got down on my 
knees and prayed Almighty God for victory at Gettys- 
burg. 1 told Him that this was His country and that 
the war was His war, but that we really couldn't stand 
another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville, and then and 
there I made a solemn vow that if He would stand by the 
boys at Gettysburg, 1 would stand by Him, and He did, 
and I will." 

We can take great satisfaction in knowing that 
President Lincoln lived to see the Civil War practically 
ended; that he walked the streets of the late capital of the 
Confederacy surrounded by black men and women and 
children who, with streaming eyes, sought to touch the 
hand or kiss the garment of one who was, to them, God's 
own instrument and direct representative; that he heard 
from the lips of the Great Captain the story of General 
Lee's surrender, and that he received the heartfelt con- 
gratulation of the people of the Northern States over the 
approaching end of his great task. 

Tn a Chicago paper was printed an illustration of the 
niarvelous growth of that city. Beginning with a mere 
speck to typify the population of seventy persons in 1830, 
a little larger dot illustrates that of 4,479 in 1840; then 
the tigure of a pigni}^ is employed to indicate the relative 
size of the population ten years later, the pigmy increasing 
in proportion as the decades pass until, with the census of 
1896 showing a population of a million and three quarters, 
a great giant stands as the representation of this later 
period. So may be illustrated the life of Abraham Lincoln. 
Begun in obscurity, in direst poverty, a youth passed 



under conditions tending to debase rather than to elevate, 
with no encouragement from those about him to gain an 
echication or improve his condition, he sh)wiy grew as the 
years went by. developing the worthier qualities of human 
character and bravely meeting every resixmsibility, until, 
hnalh'. he stood before the world, the noblest man this 
earth hath known since the Savicn^ of mankind put off 
mortalit}'. 

"Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid 

Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, cpuiint; 
What he endured, no less than what he did. 

Hath reared his monument and crowned him saint."' 




LB S '12 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




011839 273 5 4 



